St. Paul daily globe., 1887-05-09
GODS FORBEARANCE.
An Interesting Sermon by Rev. F..
II. Gates at Central Baptist.

Rev. F. L. Gates, of the Central
Baptist, took last night for his theme:
The Forbearance of God, and for his
text: Or despisest thou the riches of
His goodness and forberance and long
suffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance.
Romans a. !Io'~- ....
Our theme is the forbearance of God.
The word in the Greek so translated
means to restrain, to hold in check. The
divine forbearance is the divine self
restraint. 1t implies that there are
lightningS in the nature of God which
would leap forth to consume the sinner,
and that there are other forces which
restrain the wrath of God. The central
fires in the bosom of the globe are for
ever raging to get free. 1t is these that
have lifted the mountain chains. These
have put their mighty shoulders beneath
the continents and heaved them out of
the waters. But these raging fires are
locked in and bolted down by the
everything crust of rock, miles in thick
ness and strong as iron bands, so that
do their utmost the central fires can only
cause the vast frame of the globe at
time to heave and tremble, or burst
forth in volcanic upheaval. The mighty
antagOniStic forces are in substantial
equilibrium, so that the surface of the
earth remains peaceful and unruffied
for the most part, the seasons come and
go, the flowers bloom, the harvests
wave, and the whole globe smiles in be-
nignancy and beauty. So it is with the
nature of God. There are mighty in
ternal fires in His nature raging to be
let loose upon unpardOned sinners, but
there are other cOunteracting forces of
self-restraint which stay His hand, which
leave him in perfect rest, and which
spread over His features the smiles of
benignancy and grace. Let me name
some of the forces in the nature of God
which would lead Him to the immediate
destruction of sinners. In the first
place the exceeding Nervousness of the
impenitent sinners guilt is ever before
the mind of God, and cries
nightly for immediate punishment.
Has your blood never boiled with
righteous indignation as some particu-
larly devilish crime has come under
your notice. That righteous wrath is
but spark from the holy fires that burn
in the bosom of God against the unre-
pented guilt of men, demanding imme-
diate and summary punishment. Then
God is lmpelled to execute penalty with
out delay, because every added hour of
the sinners life he spends in doing dam
age to those whom God loves, for God
loves men, and to interests which God
holds dear. His example of impeni-
tence, his deeds of sin, the whole force
of his personality is a force for damage,
both directly and Indirectly, and that
damage is directed against persons and
interests infinitely dear to Gods heart.
Gods love itself pleads that sentence
against the sinner be speedily executed.
God is impelled to the same thing again
because the impenitent sinner is misin-
terpreting and abusing his delays. Be-
cause sentence against an evil work is
not executed speedily, therefore the
heart of the sons of men is fully set to
do evil. These things hast thou done
and kept silence. Thon thoughtest that
| was altogether such an one as thySelf.
Sinners abuse and misjudge Gods delay.
Men reason that God careS.as little about
sin as they do, that because he does not
now punish he will not. This urges
God to delay no longer. Finally the
compassion Of God pleads with him that
since delay will involve men in ever in
creaslng guilt, and SO in ever increasing
severity OF punishment, il would be
more pitiful to cut them off early that
their punishment might be lighter.
Now let us look at some of the forces
which after all restrain the hand of God.
To begin with, God can well afford to
wait. because punishment is so
certain to fall. 1t is Just as
certain as if already in process.
The sinner is so completely in Gods
power that God can venture to postpone
llIc day of vengeance. Then as to the
continued damage the sinner is doing,
he is so completely in the hands of God
that the Almighty, without in the least
destroying the sinners freedom of ac-
ton, can hedge him about by his provi-
dcnce and direct the expressions of his